She’s looking over as if she’s talking to someone – given what she apparently expects (correctly) to find outside that door, if she weren’t looking to someone as she talked, she wouldn’t take her eyes off it.

Forced? How so? We know her parents are paras, we know she’s orphaned, and we know she’s been Castela’s big sister for a very long time. For all that we assumed they met in the orphanage, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that some connection exists.

Suppressors exist in our world. Silencers may very well be functional technology in this world. I mean, damn, there’s all sorts of shit they have that we dont based on ancient, alien and god technology.

Chest wound only has to be fatal if it blew the heart out, or isn’t treated quickly.

I read that Mitch WerBel used to demonstrate the suppressor for the MAC-10 by firing an entire magazine into a bullet trap inside a hotel room while a hotel staffer with a room-service delivery was outside the door.

The OSS developed a silenced pistol during WW2 (granted, only .22) that was so quiet they had to develop an electrical firing mechanism because the sound of the action was louder than that of the gun firing.

The real problem with suppressors/silencers is that they don’t work all that good with guns that fire a supersonic round – you muffle the sound of the piece firing, and the bullet goes “BANG!” all by itself.

It is possible (and highly illegal) to make a neat little coupler that will allow you to screw a two or three liter plastic bottle (empty of course) to the muzzle of a pistol chambered for one of the weaker 9mm family rounds (subsonic) – say a .380 – which makes a very efficient suppressor/silencer for one to three (depending on how soon the bottom blows out completely) shots.

Please don’t start a silencer v.s suppressor war. Just accept that both terms are being used and no matter how much you preach people will continue to call that can a silencer. Even some of the manufacturers call them silencers, and gunbroker sort them under the category Silencers & Suppressed Firearms.

@warhorse

At least one firm that made those oil filter adapters did serialize them and had them registered as an actual silencer, making them legal to use. Or at least they were legal, I think the ATF changed their mind and they had to stop selling those.

It could very well be that Castela hadn’t been created yet. The experiments could have been in progress or about to begin, but might not have reached a successful outcome until years later…and Atsali’s mother (and potentially father assuming he was actually in the picture at that point in time) might not have survived her attempt to end the experiments.

Of course, another option might be that Atsali could have been a little slow to mature physically, thought that seems a little less likely. 🙂

So, if I can sum up what I was able to glean from everyone’s comments (thank you for being specific and bringing all theories)

This looks to be a flashback to Atsali’s biological mother, who is possibly talking to her father on the phone, and in panel 3, is likely referring to the fact that the entity they once worked for is trying to make poor pickle into a WMD, after sending Atsali’s into a panic room (push the red button).

Again, you’re assuming that Atsali’s mother was in any way successful in her attempt to act against those who were trying to create a weaponized plant para. Given that we know Atsali ended up in an orphanage, it’s safe to bet that she doesn’t survive whatever it is that she’s about to do, so this doesn’t interfere with continuity at all.